Five years have passed since the opening of the LDA Mariupol, and so much has changed since December 9, 2017.
If you looked out the window there was another Ukraine. The buildings were intact, streets were crowded, life was flowing quietly. Today, after a tremendous and inhumane attack directed towards Ukraine and its citizens that has lasted for more than 10 months, we find a different nation.
But there is something that has not changed: the mission, the vision and values of LDA Mariupol and its team, which continues, today more than ever, promoting democracy, good governance and citizens engagement, with an ever-increasing determination.
On this important anniversary we want to focus on what can be rebuilt through democracy, good governance and public participation
Since 2017, the LDA Mariupol has been implementing actions towards the promotion of these concepts, and has no intention to stop. To mention a few, the Ukrainian Local Democracy Agency participated in the “Youth for democracy” project, which was aimed at training young people to participate in decision-making at the city level. Other projects like “Empowerment of local self-government and civil society in Ukraine and Moldova through participatory democracy tools” was aimed at finding effective mechanisms of interaction and solving problems relevant to the city of Mariupol, while the project “Participatory Democracy” had the goal of implementing 12 principles of good governance in the work of local self-government in Mariupol.
These are only a few examples to highlight that, on this important anniversary, we do not want to focus on what is no longer there, but on what can be rebuilt through these exact values.
Said with the words of Tetiana Lomakina, Delegate of the LDA Mariupol “After the victory, the revival of Mariupol awaits us. And we believe that those bases of local democracy, those approaches of good governance, those best practices of public participation that we have been implementing for the last 5 years, will be at the heart of all processes. And that our friends and partners such as the European Association of Local Democracy will be with us.”
ALDA will never stop promoting and working with the LDA Mariupol and the other Local Democracies Agencies, in support of Ukraine and its citizens.
We wish the Ukrainian LDA a joyful 5th anniversary, with the hope that the next one will be surrounded by harmony and peace.
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Useful resources:
- Read the Call for the LDAs in Ukraine, and help us in supporting civil society and democratic values in Ukraine
- Discover what happened during the Conference in Wroclaw (Poland), on 25 November 2022, where European institutions and Civil Society Organisations gathered together for Ukraine
- Learn more on all actions ALDA has been implementing in Ukraine
